Will Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Have A Season Pass? It's Not Clear

So originally Electronic Arts and DICE made statements about the upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront II not having a season pass. This was met with excitement and joy. However, there is some new info that's been revealed that makes it a little less clear.

Mashable is reporting that after the panel interview following the big reveal during the Star Wars celebration on April 15th this past weekend, they came away with a bit of a mixed message about the DLC for Star Wars: Battlefront II and the possibility of a season pass.

Electronic Arts wanted them to originally withhold an interview and publish another statement instead in regards to Battlefront II's DLC plans and what they have scheduled for the long term goals of the game's content roll out. Their statement to Mashable reads...

While we're not ready to confirm any live service plans just yet, what we can say is this we heard the feedback from our Battlefront community loud and clear. We know they want more depth, more progression, and more content. So we're focused on delivering that in every dimension of Star Wars Battlefront II. We'll have more to share about our plans soon.

This arrived after Mashable had interviewed creative director Bernd Diemer from DICE, who explained to them that they would not be pursuing a season pass for Star Wars: Battlefront II. This interview took place in person at the big event from a couple of days ago. Diemer explained -- in so many words -- that the season pass typically fragments the gaming community. This is true.

The pass usually grants those who pay around $35 - $40 or so, access to maps, vehicles, characters and modes that normal buyers do not have access to. Now the way it works is that usually there are four DLC packs, one for each quarter, containing new content for players. This content fragments and demarcates the gaming audience by segmenting them off from one another.

If you bought the season pass you'll be able to play with everyone else who also has the season pass. But what happens if you paid for a single map pack because you only wanted to play a certain space battle map? Well, now you can play that map but you won't be able to join with others who bought other maps. And the only people joining you in that map are the ones who also paid for it.

This kind of fragmentation is rife within the Call of Duty and Battlefield communities, but they're so large that EA and Activision can afford to allow those communities to fragment.

In the case of games like Titanfall 2 or Star Wars: Battlefront, that kind of fragmentation will kill off a community quick, which is why they opted not to fragment maps and weapons through paid DLC in Titanfall 2. With Star Wars: Battlefront II it sounds like DICE doesn't want to segregate their community based on what DLC they own (or don't own), but EA hasn't completely decided yet what's best for the franchise.

As a company, they'll obviously make more money from a property as big as Star Wars by fragmenting maps as separate premium DLC, and selling a season pass to bridge it all together. However, if they want a long lasting community, like what Diemer mentions, then they'll have to change up their plans. It sounds like they haven't yet decided on how committed they are to a season pass, but we'll likely learn at the EA Play event taking place during E3.